Improving coverage in a cellular network using temporary subscriber indentifiers

ABSTRACT

A geolocation of a mobile device determined during an event allows a communications network provider to associate geolocation data with QoS issues. The geolocation data may be ascertained by mapping call log data with a temporary subscriber identifier assigned by the communications network provider. Geolocation data may also be obtained from URL data. The geolocation data obtained from URL data may be verified by comparing the URL data with a geo-distance from a connected cell tower. The QoS issue can be associated with geolocation data and subsequently used to improve the network or strengthen the coverage at the geolocation.

BACKGROUND

As mobile wireless communication devices continue to become increasinglyubiquitous, radio access providers strive to provide widespread androbust coverage for the wireless communication devices that subscribe toits services. While many radio access providers may have a general senseof the quality of service a subscriber may expect to receive in acertain geographic area, it can be difficult for a radio access providerto pinpoint, with any degree of accuracy, an area that is prone toissues that may affect the quality of service a subscriber mayexperience.

An event, such as a voice call, a web browsing session, a video chat, amedia download or streamed file, or other type of voice or datacommunications event, will have an associated quality of service, whichcan vary widely based upon geography, including any obstructions thatmay degrade the service at a particular location.

The historical inability to accurately determine quality of serviceissues based upon geography has led to a poor customer experience due todropped calls, increased buffering times, increased download times, andin some cases, no usable service.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanyingfigures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference numberidentifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. Theuse of the same reference numbers in different figures indicates similaror identical items or features.

FIG. 1 illustrates an overview of a networking system for providingevent issues geolocated through extracting coordinates from acommunication session.

FIG. 2 illustrates an overview of a system for providing event issuesgeolocated through extracting coordinates form a communication session.

FIG. 3 illustrates a sample mobile communication network and a mobilecommunication device as it moves throughout the network.

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate an example system for correlating eventissues, geographical coordinates, and subscriber identification.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example process for a repairing a network byextracting geographic coordinates from a communication session.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example process for repairing a network byverifying geographic from a communication session.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure describes, in part, a system and method for improvingthe quality of service in a radio network through extracting geographiccoordinates from communication sessions. As use herein, quality ofservice (“QoS”) is a measure of the overall performance of a service,and is used to refer to all forms of wireless communication, whichinclude voice and data communication. More specifically, QoS can relateto one or more of audio quality, video quality, latency, buffering,download speed, upload speed, resolution, response time, signal-to-noiseratio, echo, interrupts, cross-talk, loudness levels, packetprioritization, packet loss, bit rate, bit error rates, or anycombination and generally is at least partially responsible for thecustomer experience over a wireless communications network.

When a mobile computing device communicates over a wirelesscommunications network, such as, for example, a radio access network,which may also be referred to as a cellular network, the coveragegenerally varies with location. The signal strength from a radio accesstower varies with distance. Therefore, as a mobile computing devicemoves relative to a radio access tower, the signal strength variesgenerally proportionally to the distance from the tower. Moreover,obstructions may alter the signal strength received by the mobilecomputing device. For example, if the mobile computing device is locatedindoors, in a downtown urban environment with obstructing buildings, orin an area where naturally occurring obstructions prevent a line ofsight to the radio access tower, the signal strength may be affected.

Moreover, as a mobile computing device moves throughout a coverage area,the mobile computing device may connect to two or more radio accesstowers and the towers execute a handoff from one tower to the othertower. Depending on the relative distance (and hence, signal strength)between the mobile computing device and the towers, the QoS may beaffected, and in some cases, there may be a lack of service. This isexhibited by dropped calls, long buffering times, and sometimeunavailability of network communication services.

Historically, radio access providers understand the coverage provided bytheir services, at a high level, and may even provide coverage maps totheir subscribers and potential subscribers. However, the coverage mapsare typically very general and may not provide a resolution specificenough to identify a signal strength at a precise latitude andlongitude. Thus, it becomes difficult for a radio access provider toprecisely identify geographic areas that have QoS issues.

It would be a significant improvement to existing radio communicationnetworks if QoS could be quantified by identifying event issues andgeolocating the event issues, such as by associating geolocationcoordinates to the event issue, for further trouble shooting and networkimprovement.

The following description provides implementations for improving a radioaccess network through its ability to detect and identify event issuesand to associate the event issues with geolocation coordinates. An eventmay be associated with voice or data communication over the radio accessnetwork. For example, initiating a voice call, receiving a voice call,terminating a voice call, dropping a voice call, beginning of a datasession, streaming media start/stop/interruption, downloading filestart/stop/interruption, and initiating a web browsing session, are allnon-limiting and non-exhaustive examples of events.

In connection with the ability to identify events in conjunction with anability to determine a location at which the event transpires, a radioaccess network can be improved. For instance, where a number of negativeevents occur within a geographic area above a threshold number ofnegative events, the radio access provider can improve the coveragewithin that geographic area to provide an improve QoS to itssubscribers. A “negative event” can be any type of event that may resultin a poor customer experience. For example, dropped calls, the inabilityto send or receive data, and data download speeds below a threshold, areall examples of a negative event. Any of these “negative events” may beindicative that the QoS is below a threshold, thereby indicating anevent issue.

The geolocation of an event may be determined through a number of ways.A cellular tower, or simply tower, provides coverage to an areasurrounding the tower. The coverage area may be referred to as a cell.While a radio access provider generally knows which tower the mobilecomputing device is connected to, it may not know the specific locationof the mobile computing device within the cell. However, the mobilecomputing device may be in communication, even periodic communication,with multiple towers simultaneously. The strength of the communicationsignal between the mobile computing device and the towers is related tothe distance (among other things) between the mobile computing deviceand the tower. Where the mobile computing device is in communicationwith multiple towers, the location of the mobile computing device may bedetermined based upon its signal strength to the towers.

The location of the mobile computing device may be determined throughmultilateration of radio signal between multiple towers of the networkand the mobile computing device. This relies upon measuring power levelsbetween multiple towers and is one network-based technique for locatinga mobile computing device that is non-intrusive to the user of themobile computing device. Location information may be ascertained throughany suitable method, such as triangulation, trilateration, or GPScoordinates sent from the mobile computing device.

Another method of determining the geolocation of an event is to useapplication data sent from the mobile computing device to an applicationserver. This method provides the benefit that the application serverneed not be in the control or operation of the radio access provider.Any of a number of independently developed and published applicationsthat run on mobile computing device provide location data to theapplication server. As an example, an application that provides map ornavigation information may send location coordinates to an applicationserver. Likewise, augmented reality applications may send locationinformation over the radio access provider's network. In many cases, thelocation information sent by an application executing on the mobilecomputing device includes the location data embedded in a uniformresource locator (“URL”) sent over the hypertext transfer protocol to aweb server.

Oftentimes, the location information sent by an application executing onthe mobile computing device may be delayed, may be sent as anagglomeration of multiple location points, or may send false locationinformation. One way to filter the false coordinates and verify theaccurate coordinates is to determine the coordinates of the tower towhich the mobile computing device is connected and compare the towercoordinates with the location coordinates sent by the application. Thisprovides a quick verification of the coordinates sent by the applicationto ensure that they are likely accurate.

FIG. 1 illustrates an overview of a system 100 for associatinggeolocation data with event issues. A radio access provider may provideone or more transmitters, 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c. The transmitters maybe any suitable type of transmitter or transceiver, and may be providedas cellular towers, among other things.

In addition, or in the alternative, the radio access provider maycomprise any one or more base stations, node Bs, eNode Bs, or wirelessaccess points (e.g., Wi-Fi access points, WiMax access points, etc.).The radio access provider may include components fixing the radio accessprovider to a location and positioning the radio access provider at thatlocation, such as components of a cell tower. To provide wirelessconnectivity to the telecommunication network, the radio access providermay be equipped with any number of components, such as radio antennas,transmitter components, receiver components, power amplifiers,combiners, duplexers, encoder components, decoder components, band passfilters, power sources, or control components. The radio access providermay also include one or more carrier servers, such as a server or serverfarm, multiple, distributed server farms, a mainframe, a work station, apersonal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tablet computer, anembedded system, or any other sort of device or devices.

A mobile computing device 104 is configured to communicate with the basestations 102 a. In various implementations, the mobile computing device104 may be any sort of computing device known in the art that is capableof communicating over one or more frequency bands. Examples of suitablemobile computing devices 102 include a PC, a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a telecommunication device, a smartphone, a cell phone, apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a media player, a media center device,a personal video recorder (PVR), an electronic book reader, a camera, avideo game console, a kiosk, a wearable computing device, a virtualreality headset, smart glasses, a gaming device, an electronic devicefor inclusion in vehicles, a gaming device, or any other sort of device.

The mobile computing device 104 can be configured with hardware andsoftware necessary for data communication 106 and voice communication108. The mobile computing device 104 can additionally be outfitted withan event logger 110, a signal meter 112, a signal strength indicator114, hardware necessary to implement a global positioning system (“GPS”)116, and one or more applications 118.

The mobile computing device may additionally store information, such asin a database 120. The information may include an event identifier 122and geocoordinates 124. The database 120 may be a local database, or maybe saved remotely from the mobile computing device 104, such as on aserver maintained by the radio access provider. In some examples, alocal database 120 is stored and information is agglomerated in thelocal database and then sent to be stored on a server maintained by theradio access provider.

The ability of the mobile computing device 104 to conduct datacommunication 106 allows the mobile computing device 104, for example,to initiate web browsing sessions or stream media. Information regardingthe data communication 106, such as bit rate, signal strength, andbuffering times, for example, can be stored in the database 120.

In those implementations in which the mobile computing device 104 iscapable of conducting voice communication 108, details regarding thevoice communication event may be stored in the database 120. Eventdetails may include call initiation or reception time, an identificationof the devices communication with one another, such as telephonenumbers, sim card numbers, subscriber identification, or the like. Avoice call may result in multiple events associated with each call, andone or more of these events may be recorded in the database 120. Forinstance, separate events may occur when a call is initiated, when it ispurposefully terminated, or if a call is dropped. These events may eachhave a unique event identifier, time of occurrence, and other suchinformation associated with the event.

An event logger 110 may record the details of events to the database120. Moreover, the event logger 110 may send event details to a servermaintained by the radio service provider for storage and furtherprocessing. In some cases, the event logger 110 may periodically sendthe event details stored in a local database 120 to the radio accessprovider, or may immediately send the even details.

In some cases, a signal meter 112 is provided as part of the mobilecomputing device 104. The signal meter 112 is capable of receiving awireless signal and data associated with the signal. Data associatedwith the signal may include time data, such as from transmitters 102 aand 102 b. The time of arrival of the transmitted signals at the mobilecomputing device 104 can be used to determine the distance between themobile computing device 104 and the two transmitters 102 a, 102 b, thusproviding geocoordinates of the mobile computing device 104. The lengthof the arrows 126 a, 126 b, and 126 c corresponds to the arrival time atthe mobile computing device 104 of the synchronized signals broadcast bythe transmitters 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c.

Where a single signal from a single transmitter 102 a is received, itstime of arrival determines the length of arrow 126 a. Thus, the locationof the mobile computing device 104 relative to the transmitter 102 a isdefined as circle 128 a having a radius of arrow 126 a. By introducing asignal from a second transmitter 102 b, this further defines thelocation of the mobile computing device 104. As shown in the figure,with a known distance from a first transmitter 102 a and a secondtransmitter 102 b, there are two locations where the mobile computingdevice 104 could be located—where the first circle 128 a intersects thesecond circle 128 b. By introducing a third transmitter 102 c andreceiving a distance measurement from the third transmitter 102 c, thelocation of the mobile computing device 104 is then precisely determinedwhere the circles 128 a, 128 b, and 128 c intersect at a location point130. This simplistic example of trilateration is an effective way toascertain the position of a mobile computing device 104. With the knowngeocoordinates of the transmitters 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c, and therelative distance of the mobile computing device 104 from thetransmitters, the geolocation of the mobile computing device 104 can beascertained.

Similar to the trilateration example provided above, where the signalssent from multiple transmitters are synchronized, the time of arrival atthe mobile computing device 104 allows the geocoordinates of the mobilecomputing device 104 to be determined. One advantage of thismultilateration approach is that the mobile computing device 104 and thetransmitters don't need to be synchronized.

The mobile computing device 104 may further include a signal strengthindicator 114. This can determine the strength of the signal receivedfrom the transmitter 102 a, 102 b, and 102 c. Since signal strength isrelated to distance, this measurement can also be used to determine thedistance from one or more transmitters, and thus, be used to determinegeocoordinates of the mobile computing device 104.

The mobile computing device 104 may include the necessary hardwareand/or software to implement a GPS 116. This may allow the mobilecomputing device 104 to directly provide its geolocation to the radioaccess provider, which may be provided periodically, may be polled bythe radio access provider, or may be provided with event details. Forexample, when the mobile computing device 104 experiences an event(e.g., initiates a call, drops a call, requests a media stream, launchesan application, buffers data, etc.), the mobile computing device 104 maysend GPS data that identifies the geolocation of the mobile computingdevice 104 at the time of the event.

The mobile computing device 104 may further include one or moreapplications 118 that can be executed. In some cases, the applications118 may send geolocation coordinates to an application server, which maybe controlled and operated by a third party entity that is differentfrom the radio access provider. Where the mobile computing device 104 iscommunicating through the equipment provided by the radio accessprovider, such as a cellular tower 102 a, the data sent and received bythe application goes through the network of the radio access provider.Consequently, the radio access provider has access to the URL data sentand received by the mobile computing device 104.

Where the mobile computing device 104 is executing an application thatuses geolocation data, the geolocation coordinates may be sent as partof a URL. For example, the URL data may be in the general form ofhttp://domain.com/location/<latitude1><longitude1>&<latitude2><longitude2>&<latitude3><longitude3>.The URL data may provide multiple sets of geolocation data which mayhave been ascertained and recorded over a period of time. Suchapplications that provide geolocation data include map applications,navigation system applications, social media applications, and manyother such applications that ascertain and send geolocation data of themobile computing device 104.

Through any of the methods through which the mobile computing device 104ascertains or sends geolocation coordinates, they may be stored in thedatabase 120 and associated with an event.

With reference to FIG. 2, a system 200 for providing event issues thatare geolocated through extracting coordinates form a communicationsession is illustrated. A mobile computing device 104 communicateswirelessly with the network of a radio access provider, such as acellular tower 202. The cellular tower 202, in turn communicates withone or more servers over a network 204. The network 204 may be theinternet, or may be another form of local area network or wide areanetwork.

The radio access provider may maintain one or more carrier servers 206.In some implementations, the carrier servers 206 have one or moreprocessors 208 and computer-readable storage media 210. Thecomputer-readable storage media 210 is non-transitory and may storevarious instructions, routines, operations, and modules that, whenexecuted, cause the processors to perform various activities. In someimplementations, the one or more processors 208 are central processorunits (CPU), graphics processing units (GPU) or both CPU and GPU, or anyother sort of processing unit. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage media may include volatile and nonvolatile, removable andnon-removable tangible, physical media implemented in technology forstorage of information, such as computer readable instructions, datastructures, program modules, or other data. System memory, removablestorage, and non-removable storage are all examples of non-transitorycomputer-readable media. Non-transitory computer-readable storage mediamay include, but are not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory orother memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or otheroptical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic diskstorage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other tangible,physical medium which can be used to store the desired information andwhich can be accessed by the carrier servers 206.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the computer-readable storage medium 210 ofthe carrier servers 206 maintains various modules, such as a customerprofile module 212, one or more call logs 214, a location service 216,and one or more network logs 218. Of course, other modules may beincluded and may be configured with instructions to carry out variousother tasks not further described herein.

The carrier servers 206 may be configured to communicate with a network204, such as the internet, to exchange voice and data communicationswith the mobile computing device 104. Additional servers and devices maybe configured to likewise communicate with the network 204, such as oneor more web servers 220.

The web servers 220 may have one or more processors 222 similar to theprocessors 208 already described. The web servers 220 may likewise havecomputer-readable media 224, as previously described. The web serversmay additionally have application data 226. The application data 226 canbe data that is exchanged with the mobile computing device 104 as willbe described in further detail.

The mobile computing device 104 contains one or more processors 228which may be similar or identical to the processors contained in thecarrier servers 206, and may additionally have similar memory 230 asdescribed with reference to the carrier servers 206. That is, the memory230 associated with the mobile computing device 104 is non-transitoryand contains modules, programs, or instructions that can be executed toperform various functions.

The mobile computing device 104 includes a browser 232, such as aninternet browser that allows the mobile computing device 104 to receiveand display information from the internet. It may also include one ormore applications 234 and necessary hardware and software to implement aGPS 236.

In use, the mobile computing device 104 communicates, via the network204, with other devices. In many instances, the communication iscellular communication that occurs through a network provided by a radioaccess provider, such as a cellular tower 202. The communicationincludes data packets that are routed through equipment, such as thecarrier servers 206, to ultimately reach the destination. As the trafficpasses through the carrier servers 206, the carrier servers 206 are ableto ascertain information about the data as well as the subscribers thatis associated with the mobile computing device 104. For instance, thecarrier servers 206 can determine the phone number of the mobilecomputing device 104 that initiates data or voice communication. Thephone number is linked with a customer profile, which is maintained bythe customer profile module 212. Through this association, data sent andreceived by the mobile computing device 104 is linked with a particularaccount and subscriber.

Additionally, the carrier servers 206 maintain one or more call logs 214which can be used to record information associated with voice calls madefrom or to the mobile computing device 104. The call logs 214 mayinclude information such as the identification of the mobile computingdevice 104 (e.g., phone number, temporary subscriber identifier, or someother identification or combination of identifiers), the time the callwas placed, the duration of the call, the identification of the cellthrough which the call was routed. The call logs 214 may additionallyinclude event identifiers that identify a specific event, such as, forexample, a placed call, a received call, a dropped call, or a handoverfrom one cell to another.

The location service 216 can determine information related to a locationof a mobile computing device 104. As described, location information canbe determined through any suitable technique, such as, for example,triangulation, trilateration, or multilateration. Additionally, themobile computing device 104 may send GPS coordinate data which can bestored by the location service 216.

The carrier servers 206 may also contain network logs 218, which canstore information related to data packets sent to or from the mobilecomputing device 104 that route through the network 204 of the radioaccess provider. Some examples include an event, the time of the event,a temporary subscriber identifier, or a device identifier, among otherthings.

The mobile computing device 104 may also send data through the network204 to one or more web servers 220. The web servers 220 may or may notbe controlled by the radio access provider. In some cases, the webservers 220 may contain application data 226. The mobile computingdevice 104 can store and execute one or more applications 234 thatexchange data with the web servers 220. As non-limiting examples, themobile computing device 104 may execute a maps application that candisplay a map with the current location of the mobile computing device104. The current location of the mobile computing device 104 can be sentto the web server 220 and the web server 220 may send directions toallow the user of the mobile computing device 104 to proceed to adestination. Through updating of the current location of the mobilecomputing device 104 at intervals, the display of the mobile computingdevice 104 can show a progress indicator, or may update the currentlocation of the mobile computing device 104 to enable a user to trackher progress toward the destination. The current location data can besent to the web server 220 to be stored as application data 226.

In some implementations, the data sent by the mobile computing device104 to the web servers 220 will be in the form of a URL. The URL maycontain location data which can be extracted and stored by the webservers 220 as application data 226. Because data from the mobilecomputing device 104 is routed through the network 204 operated by theradio access provider, the radio access provider is privy to the data,including the URL data that is sent to the web servers 220. The radioaccess provider, thus, can parse the URL data and extract location datathat is sent to the web servers 220. However, when receiving locationdata embedded within URL data, there may be some inaccuracies. Forexample, many applications 234 may collect geolocation information atintervals and send multiple sets of the geolocation information at thesame time. Consequently, when URL data contains multiple sets ofgeocoordinates, it is difficult to ascertain which sets of coordinatesare the most accurate. However, this problem can be ameliorated bycomparing the multiple sets of geocoordinates with known geocoordinatesas described below.

With reference to FIG. 3, a cellular towers 302, 304, and 306 definecells 308, 310, and 312 respectively. Together, these towers form acellular network that allows a mobile computing device 104 tocommunicate with other devices. During use, the mobile computing device104 may move from one location to another, such as is represented byboxes labeled “A”, “B”, “C”, “D”, and “E.” The mobile computing device104 may initiate a voice call while at position A, and will thusinitially connect to the network through tower 302. When the call isinitiated and the mobile computing device 104 executes a handshake withthe network through the tower 302, the call log 214 on the carrierservers 206 can record information associated with the voice call, suchas, for example, the call event, the time, the cell tower 302 throughwhich the call was initiated, among other things. Similarly, when thecall terminates, this event can likewise be recorded. However, while theevent may be recorded in the call log 214, the location information isnot present as part of the data records saved as part of the call log214. The position of the tower 302 is known, but the relative positionof the mobile computing device 104 may not be known.

By its nature, a mobile computing device 104 may travel during acommunication session, or in between communication sessions. Forexample, a call may be placed while the mobile computing device 104 isat point A, and the mobile computing device 104 may travel through pointB, point C, and continue toward point D. During the period of travel,the strength of the signal between the tower 302 and the mobilecomputing device 104 may vary with distance and with obstacles. Aroundpoint C, the mobile computing device 104 may communicate with tower 304and the network may initiate a handover of the mobile computing device104 from the first tower 302 to the second tower 304. However, if themobile computing device 104 experiences a dropped call, the call logs214 may not register that the call dropped when the mobile computingdevice 104 was connected to the second tower 304 because they may onlyrecord that the call was initiated on the first tower 302.

In reality, if someone makes call while driving, the call logs 214 mayrecord that a call was initiated at a particular time, from the certaincell phone number, and which tower the call was initiated through. Afterten minutes of driving, the mobile computing device 104 may be connectedto a third tower 306 at which time the call drops. At this point, thecall logs 214 have only saved data associated with the identity of thedevice that made the call, the time of the call, and the tower throughwhich the call was initiated. The call logs 214 may not reflect that thecall was dropped from the third tower 306. However, as described above,the estimated position of the mobile computing device 104 can bedetermined through a suitable network hardware based method, such astriangulation, trilateration, multilateration or some other method.Accordingly, when the call drops, the geocoordinates of the mobilecomputing device 104 are generally known, which allows the radio accessprovider to determine the likely tower that the mobile computing device104 was connected to when the call was dropped. However, this problem isexacerbated in dense areas where cell towers have significant overlap.

For example, in a dense urban environment, there may be dozens of celltowers in a square mile, some of which may be located in very closeproximity to one another. In the example of dropped calls, the call logsmay indicate which cell tower is dropping the calls; however, an exactlocation within the cell where calls are being dropped may not bereadily apparent.

Similar to the dropped calls, buffering times of streaming media mayalso vary based upon location within a particular cell. For example, thebuffering time at point C may be significantly longer than the bufferingtime at point D. By associating the buffering event, with the bufferingtime, the bit rate, and the location, issues within the network can beidentified and the network can be improved at those locations exhibitingevent issues.

With reference to FIG. 4, the carrier servers 402 are illustrated alongwith some of the logs and associations that can be made between the datafound within the various logs. For example, the carrier servers maystore, or have access to, a call log 404, a location log 406, and anevent log 408. The call log 404 may store data associated with voicecommunication sessions. Some of the data may include an event 410, suchas an outgoing or incoming call, a dropped call, audio quality of thecall, or some other information associated with a voice call event. Thedata may also include the time 412 of the event 410, the device ID 414associated with the event, and a cell ID 416. The device ID 414 may beany information useful to identify the mobile computing device that isinvolved in the event. In some instances, the device ID 414 may be atelephone number assigned to the mobile computing device by the radioaccess provider. The cell ID 416 may be an identifier for the specificcell tower that operates as a wireless transceiver to allow the mobilecomputing device to conduct wireless communication.

The location log 406 may include information related to the location, orspeculated location, of a mobile computing device connected to thenetwork of the radio access provider. The information in the locationlog 406 may include, for example, an event 418, a time 420 associatedwith the event, GPS coordinates 422 of the event, and a temporarysubscriber identifier (“TSI”) 424.

The GPS coordinates 422 associated with an event 418 may be ascertainedas described herein, such as by network hardware methods includingtriangulation, trilateration, multilateration, or by the device sendingGPS coordinates, or by some other method or combination of suitablemethods. A TSI may typically be assigned to a mobile computing device asit connects to the network provided by the radio access provider and mayoccur during an initial handshake process. The TSI 424 is assigned to adevice for a period of time, after which the TSI 424 is recycled and anew TSI 424 is assigned to a mobile computing device for futurecommunication sessions. The TSI 424 is established for the purpose of,among other things, shielding the true identification of the mobilecomputing device from other parties detecting the true ID and being ableto identify subscribers.

The event log 408 maintains information specific to an event 426, suchas the time 428 of the event, the TSI 430 associated with the event 426,and the device ID 432 associated with the mobile computing device. Thedevice ID 432 may be a telephone number, a SIM card number, or someother type of device-specific identification.

In an example, the goal is to correlate the event, with the time, thegeolocation of the event, and the subscriber experiencing the event. Bycreating an association between this information, additional steps canbe taken to troubleshoot the issues and improve the coverage andreliability of the network at specific geolocations.

One issue is that there is not a data source that allows a directcorrelation between the event, the geolocation, and the subscriber.While the information may exist is disparate locations, the carrierservers 402 can be configured to extract the necessary information andmake the required associations.

For example, with reference to FIG. 4B, the location log 406 includesthe time 420 of an event and the TSI 424 of the mobile computing deviceinvolved in the event. While the location log 406 additionally includesGPS coordinates 422, this information is not readily associated with theevent 410 or the device ID 414. However, the time 420 and TSI 424 withinthe location log 406 can be compared with the time 428 and TSI 430stored within the event log 408. Because the TSI 424 is recycledregularly, the time 420 needs to additionally be compared to correlatethe data in the location log 406 with the data in the event log 408. Theevent log 408 additionally includes the device ID 432.

Because a radio access provider may collect data on millions of eventsper day, it becomes difficult to create associations that rely on timeand event alone. For example, a radio access subscriber may maintain acall log that indicates upwards of ten million calls (event) were placedevery day, or on average, about seven thousand calls every second(time). Consequently, additional data points are preferable to ensurethe same event is associated with a specific subscriber and a specificlocation.

The device ID 432 from the event log 408 can be associated with datafrom the call log 404, since the call log 404 also includes the deviceID 414 and the time 412. Furthermore, the call log 404 includes theevent 410 and the device ID 414 which indicates which device experiencedthe event 410. The data in the call log 404 can now be associated withthe data in the location log 406 and an association can be createdbetween the event 410, the device ID 414, the time 412, and the GPScoordinates 422 at which the event 410 took place.

Historically, a radio access provider may understand that a particulartower is associated with dropped calls, but may not know a locationwithin the coverage area of the tower that is having issues with callreliability. With this association, a radio access provider is able tocorrelate a dropped call event with a subscriber that is experiencing adropped call along with the geocoordinates of the dropped call. Theradio access provider is now able to investigate the issue and remedythe situation.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are flow diagrams showing several illustrative routinesfor repairing a network by extracting geographic coordinates from acommunication session, according to embodiments disclosed herein. Itshould be appreciated that the logical operations described herein withrespect to FIGS. 5 and 6 are implemented (1) as a sequence of computerimplemented acts or program modules running on a computing system and/or(2) as interconnected machine logic circuits or circuit modules withinthe computing system. The implementation is a matter of choice dependenton the performance and other requirements of the computing system.Accordingly, the logical operations described herein are referred tovariously as operations, structural devices, acts, or modules. Theseoperations, structural devices, acts, and modules may be implemented insoftware, in firmware, in special purpose digital logic, and anycombination thereof. Moreover, it should be appreciated that thedescribed operations may be performed on multiple computing systems,including systems operated or controlled by various parties. It shouldalso be appreciated that more or fewer operations may be performed thanshown in the figures and described herein. These operations may also beperformed in parallel, or in a different order than those describedherein.

With reference to FIG. 5, an example process 500 for a repairing anetwork by extracting geographic coordinates from a communicationsession is illustrated. At block 502, a call log is received. The calllog may be stored in a single, or in multiple databases having varyingdata structures. The call log may additionally receive input from manysources. As an example, a voice call routed through the network of aradio access provider may pass through ten, twenty, thirty, or moreservers, and each one of the servers may record call log data which canbe stored in the call log.

At block 504, a location log is received. As described herein, alocation service may execute a probabilistic model to conjecture at theprecise location of a mobile computing device, which may be based uponsignal strength from towers operating within the network of the radioaccess provider.

At block 506, an event log is received. The event log may be created byone or more servers that are part of the network of the radio accessprovider. The event log may collect data regarding calls as they arerouted through the network of the radio access provider, and may be sentto the central servers for storage and/or processing. The event log mayinclude the time, the event, the TSI, and the subscriber ID. However,there is no location data that can be collected as part of the eventlog.

At block 508, an event issue is identified. An event issue may includeany sort of issue that has a tendency to reduce the overall customerexperience and may include, without limitation, a dropped call, areduction in available bandwidth or download speed, an increase in databuffering times, a reduction in audio or video quality, or a denial ofservice. In order to effectively investigate the reasons for the eventissue, it is often helpful to correlate the location with the eventissue.

At block 510, a correlation is created between the event, the time, thegeolocation, and the device ID. This allows a radio access provider toevaluate and investigate the issue.

At block 512, the network is repaired at the geolocation associated withthe event. The repair may be any form that is calculated to improve thecoverage and/or reliability of the network and may include allocatingadditional bandwidth, adding available spectrum, optimizing thespectrum, adding additional towers, or some other measure to improve thenetwork.

With reference to FIG. 6, an example process 600 for a repairing anetwork by extracting geographic coordinates from a communicationsession is illustrated. At block 602, URL data is received. The URL datamay include coordinates, and may include multiple sets of coordinates.However, there is no guarantee that the coordinates included in a URL isaccurate.

At block 604, the proximity of a mobile computing device to a tower isdetermined. This may be determined, for example, by signal strength, bytime to arrival, or by some other suitable method.

At block 606, the URL location data is compared with the tower location.This allows the URL location data to be verified. For example, where theURL location data includes multiple sets of coordinates, thosecoordinates can be compared with the location of the tower through whichthe mobile computing device is communicating. Based upon the signalstrength of the mobile computing device, its relative distance from thetower can be ascertained and compared with the URL location data toverify whether one or none of the coordinates included in the URLlocation data is reasonable.

At block 608, the location of the device is determined. If thecoordinates in the URL location data can be verified in light of theproximity of the mobile computing device to a tower, then the URLlocation data can be inferred as the location of the mobile computingdevice.

At block 610, an event issue is received. As described, an event issuemay be any issue that degrades the overall reliability, speed, orquality of the communication session.

At block 612, the event issue is correlated with the device location.This provides an association between an issue with the network and alocation at which customers are experiencing event issues.

At block 614, the network can be repaired at the location. The repairmay be any form that is calculated to improve the coverage and/orreliability of the network and may include allocating additionalbandwidth, adding available spectrum, optimizing the spectrum, addingadditional towers, or some other measure to improve the network.

Many radio access providers may be able to determine that there areissues with a network. For example, it may be known than a mobilecommunication device is buffering a media stream, and in fact, maybuffer longer at one location compared with a second location. However,the radio access provider may not be able to determine why thecommunication device is buffering differently at various locations, andeven more problematic is that the location information may only identifywhich tower the communication device is connected to.

Similarly, the radio access provider may determine that calls are beingdropped from a particular tower, but cannot determine locations withinthe coverage area of the tower that its subscribers are encountering thedropped call events. According to embodiments described herein aresystems and methods for determining an event, the identification of thesubscriber, and the precise location at which the event occurs.

The result is not only improved geolocation information that can bederived, calculated, or verified based upon an number of data sourcesincluding, without limitation, signal strength, time of arrival,triangulation, trilateration, multilateration, a GPS system of themobile computing device, or location data embedded within a URL, butalso provides an improvement to a wireless network by allowing eventissues to be geolocated. The end effect is the ability to preciselylocate weak spots in a telecommunications network so the network can beimproved in terms of coverage and reliability to enhance the overallcustomer experience.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather,the specific features and acts are disclosed as exemplary forms ofimplementing the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of improving coverage in a cellularnetwork, comprising: receiving, from a call log, call data comprising anevent identifier and a device identifier that identifies a communicationdevice associated with the event; receiving, from a location log,location data comprising a time of the event, a temporary subscriberidentifier and GPS coordinate information; receiving, from an event log,event log data comprising the time of the event, the temporarysubscriber identifier and the device identifier; associating at least(i) the time of the event from the location log and (ii) the temporarysubscriber identifier from the location log with at least (iii) the timeof the event from the event log and (iv) the temporary subscriberidentifier from the event log to provide first associated data;associating at least the device identifier from the call log with thedevice identifier from the event log to provide second associated data;based at least in part on the first associated data and the secondassociated data, generating a correlation between the event and the GPScoordinate information; and repairing the cellular network at a locationassociated with the GPS coordinate information.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the GPS coordinate information is determined, at least inpart, upon a signal strength of a radio signal received by thecommunication device.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the GPScoordinate information is extracted from a data request from thecommunication device.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the GPScoordinate information is included in a URL request sent from thecommunication device.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprisingdetermining a distance of the communication device from a radio accesstower by one or more of triangulation, signal strength, time of arrival,trilateration, or multilateration.
 6. A system, comprising: one or moreprocessors; non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructionsthat, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one moreprocessors to perform acts, comprising: receiving, from a call log, calldata comprising an event identifier and a device identifier thatidentifies a communication device associated with the event; receiving,from a location log, location data comprising a time of the event, atemporary subscriber identifier and GPS coordinate information;receiving, from an event log, event log data comprising the time of theevent, the temporary subscriber identifier and the device identifier;associating at least (i) the time of the event from the location log and(ii) the temporary subscriber identifier from the location log with atleast (iii) the time of the event from the event log and (iv) thetemporary subscriber identifier from the event log to provide firstassociated data; associating at least the device identifier from thecall log with the device identifier from the event log to provide secondassociated data; based at least in part on the first associated data andthe second associated data, generating a correlation between the eventand the GPS coordinate information; and repairing the cellular networkat a location associated with the GPS coordinate information.
 7. Thesystem of claim 6, wherein the GPS coordinate information is determined,at least in part, upon a signal strength of a radio signal received bythe communication device.
 8. The system of claim 6, wherein the GPScoordinate information is extracted from a data request from thecommunication device.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the GPScoordinate information is included in a URL request sent from thecommunication device.
 10. The system of claim 6, wherein the actsfurther comprise determining a distance of the communication device froma radio access tower by one or more of triangulation, signal strength,time of arrival, trilateration, or multilateration.